animal

657: (107/365) Le Chat Noir

| wonko

I have had this model on my “must try” list for ages but there was something about the fold sequence that made me uneasy, couldn’t put my finger on it:

I decided to fold it in black, because…reasons. faithfully following the folding diagrams unexpected things began to happen – layers on the wrong side, meridians not aligning etc.

I got a little “creative” and it worked out fine, but I think there are errors in the sequence (or steps missing). I followed the diagrams faithfully until … I didn’t, really. Continue reading →

656: (106/365): Hsi Min Tai’s Rabbit

| wonko

Having folded Robert Lang, Jun Maekawa and Ronald Koh’s Rabbits, I feel I have been a bit spoiled in terms of “best” rabbits out there:

Always on the lookout for something new, and given that it is Easter Sunday, a rabbit seemed appropriate and this rabbit gave me an interesting challenge. Continue reading →

655: (105/365) Basset Hound

| wonko

Those who know me realise I am mostly a “cat person” but my parents used to have Bassets, lovely dogs that were low to the ground, long ears and seemingly wearing a skin that was 5 sizes too big:

I have been looking for a good Basset hound model and, up until now, have not really found anything suitable.

Scanning the State Library (and learning you can e-borrow their collection) I stumbled across an archived copy of Seth Friedman’s “Dog Origami”. The last (and presumably most complex) model in the book was a Basset, and I have spent much of the afternoon trying to fold it. Continue reading →

654: (104/365) Neelish Kumar’s Crucifixion

| wonko

When I first saw NeelishK’s fold of this model I was in total awe of the boxpleating skill it showcased:

He is part of a shared group on Fakebook and to my amazement shared, via photodiagram, guidelines and folding sequence suggestions. Continue reading →

653: (103/365) Stretching Cat

| wonko

As any cat owner knows, cats seem to be able to tie themselves in knots, and this pose is fairly typical of a stretch pose:

Well, I say cat “owners” but in reality, cats own and train us to serve them, it is in the nature of cats really. Continue reading →

652: (102/365) Sleep In

| wonko

Now you are set to sleep in, for the first time in ages right? Your neighbour, bless him, decides this morning is the time to chainsaw and woodchip the hedgerow:

As amusing as this sounds, this actually happened to me this morning. Coincidentally I had just completed Fernando Gilgado’s “Sleeping In” model – seems the universe was conspiring against me. Continue reading →

650: (100/365) Mi Wu’s Dragon

| wonko

Now I must admit for model 100 of the current 365, to starting this mode before we went on holidays, but left it barely started as it has taken me an age to decrypt the directions for folding it:

This lovely, plucky little dragon needs much bigger paper. Teasing the details and final shaping at this scale is torture. Continue reading →

647: (97/365) Yabbie

| wonko

Small, delicious crustaceans abound all over the world, in Australia we have the Yabbie:

Found in freshwater dams, billabongs and rivers, yabbies are treasured as an Australian bush tucker. Continue reading →

645: (95/365) Peacock

| wonko

A model I had mastered as a child was the only Peacock I had seen folded until fairly recently:

This is Edwin Corrie’s Peacock, a magic little model that makes a tight efficient little body out of one corner of the square leaving lots of paper for the fan-shaped tail. Continue reading →

643: (93/365) Square Bear

| wonko

Australia do not really have bears, well, nothing that is actually a bear but this charming model needed to be folded so folded it I did:

This is Edwin Corrie’s Square Bear, a charming model that is relatively simple but demonstrative of form. Continue reading →

639: (89/365) Baby TRex

| wonko

I am sure dinosaurs were not cute – not even baby ones as they were snappy wild beasts:

The little purple beauty is designed by Issei Yoshino and is a lovely exercise in colour management. Continue reading →

632: (82/365) Spiral Snail

| wonko

Inspired by the work of Tomoko Fuse, I began experimenting with a square and using most of it to do a spiral. Initially I tried even divisions but found a more logarithmic progression from wide to narrow worked best:

Using alternating mountains and valleys, a lovely spiral emerged and there was enough paper to fashion a head, antennae and foot. Continue reading →

630: (80/365) Eastern Dragon

| wonko

The dragon is a favourite subject for origami designers – most have tried their hand at one:

This is Joseph Wu’s “Eastern Dragon” – how can we tell it is an eastern dragon? It has no wings and does not need them to fly. It is only us silly westerners that decided to rationalise the dragon morphology.

I have been meaning to fold this for ages – nothing like a 365 challenge to bring out the models on hold. Continue reading →